Rivera Is Taking Robinson’s 42 to Its Last Stop

Mariano Rivera’s decision to retire after the 2013 season represents the end of an era for several reasons. The major leagues’ career leader in saves, he has been a cornerstone of the Yankees since winning his first championship ring with them, in 1996, and given his remarkable consistency and distinct lack of histrionics, he will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace.

But Rivera is also the last player in Major League Baseball wearing Jackie Robinson’s No. 42, which was retired on April 15, 1997, on the 50th anniversary of Robinson’s first game in the major leagues, the game in which he broke the sport’s color barrier.

When Commissioner Bud Selig announced then that No. 42 was being retired, there were 13 major leaguers, including Rivera, wearing it. All 13 were told they could keep wearing the number for the rest of their major league careers.

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Jackie Robinson in 1956.CreditAssociated Press

Rivera was not yet the most dominant relief pitcher in the history of the sport in 1997. Other players then wearing No. 42 included Mo Vaughn, who was in the prime of his career with the Red Sox; Butch Huskey, an infielder and outfielder for the Mets; and Kirk Rueter, a pitcher who ultimately won 130 games for the Montreal Expos and the San Francisco Giants. Other players, like Scott Karl of the Milwaukee Brewers and Marc Sagmoen of the Texas Rangers, were known only to hard-core fans.

Six of the 13, including Dennis Cook, a well-traveled reliever who spent 15 seasons in the majors, and Tom Goodwin, a well-traveled outfielder who stuck around for 14, gave up No. 42 after the 1997 season.

Goodwin, now a coach with the Mets, told Baseball Prospectus several years ago that he wanted to continue wearing No. 42 after 1997 but was mistakenly told he could not. Others, like Vaughn and Huskey, kept the number even as they switched teams.

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Mo Vaughn was among the players allowed to wear Robinson's number after it was retired.CreditWinslow Townson/Associated Press

“A teacher gave me a book in high school, and after I read it I made a promise that if I ever made it I would wear the number to honor him,” Huskey, who grew up in Oklahoma, said in spring training some 16 years ago.

Vaughn, who wore No. 42 throughout his 12-year career, last played in the major leagues in 2003, with the Mets. When he retired, there was only one No. 42 left: Rivera.

Two other No. 42s — pitchers Jose Lima and Mike Jackson — intersected in Houston in 2001. Jackson had worn No. 42 on the San Francisco Giants, starting in 1992, and continued to do so with the Cincinnati Reds, the Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians. But when he joined the Astros in 2001, Lima already had it, so he switched to No. 38. When he went to the Minnesota Twins in 2002, he donned No. 42 again. But it was the last season both he and Lima wore the number.

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Butch Huskey, a former Met, also wore No. 42, even as he switched teams.CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

Rivera was asked about Robinson and No. 42 on Saturday, during the news conference at which he announced that the coming season would be his last.

“I carried the legacy of Mr. Jackie for all these years, and I tried to do my best to wear No. 42 and do it with class and honor,” Rivera told reporters. “Being the last player for us to wear No. 42 is a privilege.”

And a distinction, one that will be underlined when “42,” a new movie about Robinson, makes its premiere this spring. In the movie, Chadwick Boseman plays Robinson (who played himself in the 1950 film “The Jackie Robinson Story”), and Harrison Ford plays Branch Rickey, the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who signed Robinson with the express intent of having him make history.

Which he did. As did Rivera in his way, while wearing Robinson’s No. 42 from start to finish.

David Waldstein contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B12 of the New York edition with the headline: Rivera Is Taking Robinson’s 42 To Its Last Stop. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe